Millions of people around the world use motorcycles not just for transportation, but for recreational activities such as touring and vacationing, off-road exploration, and racing. Motorcycle racing is a multi-billion dollar industry just in North America. Amateur and professional racers compete in thousands of races every year all over Canada, Mexico, and the United States. For example, the American Motorcycle Association® (AMA) organizes racing competitions in six different categories: superbike, flat track, supermoto, motocross, supercross, and hillclimb. Motorcycle riding competitions also feature prominently in extreme sports competitions, such as the X Games® or the Dew Sports Action Tour™ competitions. Additionally, motorcycles and motocross have inspired or melded with other types of vehicles to create new forms of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) recreation, including quad racing, competitive snowmobile racing, and bicycle motocross (BMX).
Protective gear is a critical component for amateur and professional motorcycle enthusiasts, and manufacturers often tailor such equipment for specific uses. Off-road motorcycle riding and racing present unique challenges for protective riding gear. Not only must the equipment protect riders in the case of a fall, it must function in the face of unique hazards not seen in road riding or track racing. In all types of off-road motorcycle riding and racing, riders often face treacherous riding conditions while traveling over dirt, sand, mud, and snow. Off-road riders often must negotiate around trees and stumps, boulders, brush, and other terrain features. Not only must a rider's protective gear protect him from such risks of injury, that equipment should be able to structurally withstand being struck by such objects without failing. In wet or snowy conditions, riders often become covered in mud, which can interfere with attachment mechanisms on protective equipment.
The legs of an off-road rider in particular face a variety of hazards presented by flying objects (e.g., rocks, clumps of mud, sand, and branches), kicked up by the rider's own vehicle and by other riders, as well as terrain features. Even on relatively smooth dirt tracks, the risk of lower leg or foot injury for flying objects may be substantial. Additionally, motorcycle riders expect their boots to protect them from hazards presented by the bikes they ride or those of other riders. In the case of a fall or a collision, a rider's leg may become pinned under the motorcycle, and even while riding, heat from engine and exhaust components presents a burn risk to an unprotected rider. In view of the forgoing, there is an ever-present need for improved protective footwear for motorcycle and other off-road motorsports that protects a rider's lower legs and feet against reasonably anticipated risks and hazards that the rider might face. Additionally, there is an ever-present need to improve the construction of such protective footwear to render it more effective, durable, and to reduce production costs.
Boot Gaskets
Many motorcycle boots, including motocross boots, include a top gasket on the upper intended to fit snugly against the wearer's leg. This gasket usually fits around the top opening of the boot that surrounds a portion of the rider's calf. The gasket provides a seal against dirt, rocks, mud, vegetation, and other objects being forced inside the boot while the wearer is riding a motorcycle. The gasket of a motocross boot usually is designed to be flexible and elastic to accommodate other protective gear a rider wears, such as knee guards and shin guards.
Top gaskets of prior art motocross boots typically are constructed from natural or synthetic leather that is gathered around and stitched into the top of the boot. Thus, traditional gaskets are based on a substantially two-dimensional material (a flat strip of leather) that is gathered and formed into a three-dimensional shape. These traditional gaskets can be quite bulky and often wear out quickly because the top of the boot is exposed to the environmental hazards described above and usually experience a great amount of wear and tear during use. Additionally, making such top gaskets can be a labor-intensive effort requiring gathering and stitching of leather around a specific area of the boot. Some attempts to provide gasket-like elements to the top of motorcycle boots include the following.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,651 discloses a motorcycle boot with a mechanism for removing air from inside the boot. Part of that system is a “means for hermetically sealing” based on an insertable “small shoe” (7) that fits into an outer impact shield of a boot, similar to the type of system commonly seen in ski boots. The insertable shoe part is “preferably made of a flexible synthetic material” and includes a collar (7a). This patent does not describe integrating the small shoe's collar as a top gasket on the top of a boot, and does not disclose specific materials or manufacturing processes for making the collar.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,825 discloses a boot for sportswear, such as motorcycling and skiing. The boot includes a collar (134) folded outwardly to form an annular chamber that is then wrapped around the wearer's leg. However, this patent—like the '651 patent above—does not disclose specific materials or manufacturing processes for making the collar.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,356 describes a ski boot with an inner liner that “may extend over the top of the upper impact shield assembly” of the boot (indicated as ref. no. 48 in FIGS. 1 and 2). No specific materials or manufacturing processes for making the inner liner are mentioned.
Unfortunately, these references have not provided an easily manufactured solution that is effective at helping seal the top of a motorcycle boot when worn.
Thermal Laminates
Many prior art motocross boots include a thermal laminate, also known as a “burn guard”, placed on the outer surface of a boot upper in a manner intended to help protect against heat that emanates from a motor vehicle's engine and exhaust system. In the absence of a thermal laminate, there is a greater risk that heat could damage the boots and other equipment a rider wears or even pose a burn hazard to the rider. Traditional thermal laminates usually are made from a layer of flexible, heat resistant natural or synthetic leather stitched to the outer surface of the boot. The top edge of the thermal laminate usually is stitched to the leather top gasket surrounding the top of the boot. The thermal laminate typically extends down the outer surface of the boot upper to protect the inside portion of the boot and rider's lower leg that straddles the motorcycle engine. Unfortunately, in traditional thermal laminates, a leading edge of the top gasket extends above the thermal laminate and remains exposed to the environment. This leading edge of the top gasket, and the interface between the thermal laminate and the gasket, often suffer a great amount of wear and tear during use due to this exposure, which not only compromises the ability of the top gasket to function properly, but may advance the degradation of other boot components as well.
Another problem with traditional thermal laminates is that they are disposed on a portion of a boot that a rider may place in contact with portions of the motorcycle (or other motor vehicle) to exert force and control over the motion of the motorcycle or to better grip the motorcycle. Unfortunately, many traditional thermal laminates made of leather tend not to grip well against hard or slippery surfaces of a motorcycle, which does not facilitate rider control over the motorcycle.